Introduction
usb8x is a free, open source application for the TI-84 Plus calculators. It combines a low level driver to support the calculator's USB port with a limited selection of device drivers. It is designed with two goals in mind: First, to allow programmers to create external applications/programs that use USB devices without any knowledge of the low-level workings of those devices or the USB port itself. Second, to allow programmers to create additional drivers for other USB hardware not currently supported natively in usb8x.
If you don't have a TI-84 Plus, or haven't bought an adapter cable, you can check out a usb8x demo video (4.5 MB) to see it in action.
Requirements
To run usb8x, you obviously need a TI-84 Plus calculator, as they have a USB-OTG port. In addition, usb8x will only run from a minimum basecode of 2.30; any OS versions older than this will show an ERR:VERSION. Secondly, you need a USB adapter cable with a mini-A male head on one end and a regular A female on the other, like shown in the following links:
You can also check your local retail store for adapters. Once you have a calculator and a cable, you can read the readme included in the distributable and online for further information.
Drivers
The following is a list of drivers which are included in usb8x:
- Mass StorageCommunicate with flash drives, hard drives, and other devices conforming to the USB MSD standard.
- MouseCommunicate with mice and other pointing devices conforming to the USB HID mouse standard.
- KeyboardCommunicate with keyboards comforming to the USB HID keyboard standard.
- SilverLinkUse the TI-Graphlink SilverLink to communicate with another calculator.
- GamePadCommunicate with compatible gamepad controllers.
- VernierCommunicate with EasyTemp or other Vernier devices.
Software
The drivers included in usb8x are not programs themselves. The following programs use either one or more of the above drivers:
- msd8xmsd8x is a TI-84 Plus Flash application which serves as a GUI interface between your calculator's contents and USB mass storage device's contents. Just like usb8x, it only supports the FAT16 file system. It also supports importing/exporting of 8x* variables and direct execution of MirageOS/Ion programs. Visit its online manual here.
- USBToolsUSBTools contains a number of demos and developer tools for use with usb8x. It has demos for use with: mouse, keyboard, gamepad, and SilverLink. It also has tools to read standard descriptors from devices and parse usb8x log files.
News
msd8x 0.95 released 2007-01-07 23:28 - usb8x
msd8x 0.95, the GUI for the usb8x mass storage driver, has been added to the usb8x CVS and released.
In addition to the usual file/folder management and 8x* imports/exports, it now runs MirageOS/Ion BASIC and assembly programs directly from flash drives and features improved folder navigation.
Read More »
usb8x 0.12 released 2007-01-07 02:48 - usb8x
Version 0.12 of usb8x, a USB host driver for the TI-84 Plus calculators, has been released.
A driver for the Vernier EasyTemp devices and a number of developer features have been added. There are also many fixes such as improved support for mass storage devices. More details on changes in 0.12 can be found in the change log.
Read More »
If you have questions or comments, feel free to post in the forum. Bug reports (as if there are any bugs...) go here.
